Origin. Rene' Laennec discovered the stethoscope in 1816, at a hospital in Paris, France while in the process of treating a woman with a heart ailment. It is said that accidentally, Laennec, out of sheer modesty and considering his patient was female, instead of placing his ears directly on the woman's chest, he designed a rolled paper to be used as his ear extension which he did by placing his ear on the other end. That was the start of his invention that led him to make his first wooden stethoscope. The medical instrument was then improved and/or modified by different people in many parts of the world, until today which has become better than ever, in terms of quality and usage, ranging from different types, produced by various manufacturers and distributed around the globe, reaching to medical end users in clinics, hospitals, home for the aged, mental institutions, and even private homes.
Image Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stethoscope
Importance. It is a basic scientific gadget, without which, there could be no other practical means of detecting sickness or disease at the very first instance of medical attention given to humans and even to animals. Mortality rates among humans and animals could have doubled, even perhaps, multiplied greatly if no early detection of disease through the help of the wonderful stethoscope was done. It is one of the simple, if not, the simplest tool of early detection of disease.
Description and its functions. A stethoscope is a man- made extension of the human ears, so to speak. It is a scientific instrument used generally to check and or monitor a person's internal organs like the heart, lungs, intestines and even blood flow. It is a perennial gadget found in the possession of nurses and doctors hanging on their uniforms. The sound inside a patient's body is heard through it which cannot be heard by the mere ears alone, and which can greatly help in the assessment of one's health condition during the usual medical examination. The patient's breathing sounds can spell the difference between sick or good lungs and so with other internal body conditions as seen through the stethoscope. Even blood pressure can be determined by this useful medical equipment.
The faint beat of the heart is measured by the stethoscope where the first beat is the upper number of the blood pressure and the second beat as the lower number. In addition, the condition of our digestive system can also be detected through the stethoscope by way of sound inside the digestive tract which can easily be heard when it is pressed against the stomach area. If no sound is heard, it may mean that the digestive tract is blocked somewhere or if unusual sounds are heard, it may indicate infection or sickness. Also, when a child is conceived, the stethoscope can also detect its development in the mother's womb, also via sound manifestations from within. Imagine, such a fantastic gadget is actually a great help to the medical profession because it can detect the first signs of life during conception.
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